Vineyards

Unique local sites

Russak Ridge Vineyard

Ventura County

Steve and Robyn Russak planted four acres of Grenache, Zinfandel, and Syrah on their Santa Rosa Valley estate in 2013. The vines are on a VSP trellis at four foot in-row spacing with 6 feet between rows. The hillside vineyard extends rises to almost 2000 feet above sea level on thin soils over fractured limestone. This young vineyard struggles in the thin soils and naturally produces low, concentrated yields of fruit that are buffeted daily by the winds coming off the Pacific.

The vineyard is entirely hand-farmed and is focused on sustainable approaches. We believe the coastal influence of this site will allow longer hang time on the vine and rich, ripe flavors with good natural acidity.

Swayze Vineyards

Antelope Valley of the High Desert AVA

Monty and Linda Swayze own an estate vineyard at the far northern edge of Los Angeles County. This high desert vineyard sits at 3000 feet of altitude in the shade of the Sierra Pelona Mountain range. What is always shocking to people is that this little sliver of Los Angeles county is actually located at the same latitude as the town of Santa Barbara. We first harvested Grenache from their vineyard in 2015 and were blown away by the sexy aromatics and sultry flavors of the wine produced from their Grenache. We immediately secured whatever volume of Grenache we could for the following harvests. The fruit from the Swayze vineyard is in high demand and they farm ten acres of high-quality Grenache, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Alicante Bouschet, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc. The vines are all planted on a vertical shoot positioning trellis, six foot in-row spacing, and ten foot spacing between rows. The vineyard produces luscious and hedonistic fruit. The Swayze Vineyard is the source for the Grenache in our 2016 – The 109 Mile Grenache and is the first vineyard we harvest each year.

Lewis Vineyard

Ventura County

We instantly fell in love with the Lewis family’s hillside vineyard located a scant twelve miles from the Ventura County coast. This beautiful hillside vineyard was entirely planted to Syrah clone 877 on 1103P rootstock over 12 years ago and the fruit has gone into the wines of multiple central coast producers. We were fortunate to begin hand-farming this vineyard in 2016 and have converted it to farming using only organic means. The steep hillside has shallow soils over fractured limestone with moderate water holding capabilities. These soils control the natural vegetative vigor of Syrah while the cooling influence of the Pacific Ocean preserves acidity in the fruit allowing us to harvest balanced fruit at riper levels than we can achieve in other vineyards. The fruit from this vineyard was used for our 2016 – The 109 Mile Syrah and is typically the last vineyard we harvest.

Cracked Earth Vineyard

Ventura County

Our home vineyard was first planted in 2010 to answer the question of what varieties are best suited to coastal Ventura County. It contains test blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Primitivo, Grenache, and Mouvedre on multiple rootstocks with some own-rooted vines. The soil is heavy clay that soaks up the winter rains and doles it out over the course of the growing season allowing some varieties to be dry-farmed. The name comes from the Spanish phrase “Tierra Rejada” which is slang for “cracked earth” and it describes how the un-amended natural clay bakes in late summer and splits apart showing huge cracks that seem to descend into the abysss. The vines are planted on a variety of spacings and trellis systems from VSP, to Smart-Dyson, to head training.

Estelle Vineyards

Santa Ynez Valley

In 2017 we made our first foray into Santa Barbara county and added Estelle Vineyards to the list of vineyards we work with.

Estelle Vineyards is farmed by John and Ivan Belfy and their team at Buona Terra Farming.